Kyle watched him go with an odd expression. Who the heck would willingly choose to live in an open zone? Whatever, he definitely didn't care. He turned the car around and headed back home.
Kyle sighed slightly bored. No one else was up yet, it was quite early still. If he hadn't of had such a weird dream he wouldn't have been up that early for a drive. He smirked a little to himself, he should of just let the guy Kip get lost.
He scanned the kitchen before settling on some chips. Did he just fry monster meat in his free time to eat? Why was he even curious? Must be because he was such an anomaly. Pity he had no sense of logic.
He pulled out his phone and started scanning past articles related to that area, interesting, seems this Kip had actually appeared a few times before. One group even called him a ghost. Ha! He found that amusing.
Over the next few days his weird curiosity in the guy kept coming back until one night he finally slammed the counter with a hiss. Both Cody and Connor looked at him.
"Are you good their buddy?" asked Cody.
Kyle hissed under his breath and didn't bother replying. He stalked back to his room muttering "research" as he left. His little makeshift lab was full of medicines and anti-toxins for various beasts. He was currently working on one for a blade snake, which was a new mutation of an earth snake.
Just a few more hours and he'd have it, maybe. He tossed himself into his work pushing the weird Kip from his mind.
...….
Six days later he frowned at the scene in front of him. It was like the world was trying to annoy him. He had managed to push Kip from his mind when this happened. James was in front of him looking sheepish.
"What" he growled.
"Um so yeah, our A2 raid team kind of got into some trouble and got Kip bitten by a blade snake. I know you were working on a cure so I thought I'd ask for one. He was nice enough to step in after all." James shrunk back from his glare "Um if you don't have one don't worry about it, I will just station some people or try to convince him to take a room at our guild for awhile. The partial paralysis will wear off in a month."
For some reason the whole thing made Kyle really annoyed, more than usual. He stalked back inside to grab one of his vials. He had gotten it to wear off in five days instead of four weeks, but it wasn't perfect. He'd make a valuable test subject.
"Move it" he growled to James by the door as he stalked down to where his car was parked.
...…..
The open zone, it was a terrifying place for most. Kyle sat lazily in the passenger seat as James navigated to Kip's place. A wolf blocking the road? Fireball. A snake poised to strike? Fireball. James's solution to basically everything.
"Where is Jay?" Kyle asked.
"Well they met Kip over in the east zone, which is where the blade snake appeared, he was going to bring him back to his house. Which should be around here...… somewhere."
"It's the apartment building on the left." Kyle muttered.
"Oh" he pulled over, "wait how'd you know that?"
"Doesn't matter." Kyle walked up the broken pathway and into the building his messenger bag swung over one shoulder.
It was easy to find his place. Everywhere else had a thick layer of dust. Kyle didn't bother knocking and just entered. He saw Jay sitting on a chair observing Kip who was on the couch glaring at him.
"Oh good you're here." Said Jay looking relieved. "Anti-social over here doesn't want any help."
"I'm not anti-social I just don't need your pity or anything else." Kip glared back.
"It's not pity" grumbled Jay "like I already stated it's because you helped us with that blade snake. Opal could of died from it if you hadn't of appeared."
"How long since he got bitten?" asked Kyle.
Jay glanced at his watch, "half hour ago" he replied.
"Easy enough if we wait another half hour he should pass out for a bit. I can just treat him then." Kyle stated as if he was reading a very dry textbook.
"Oye don't I get a say in this!" yelped Kip, "Get lost already."
James ignored him and turned back to Kyle "He'll pass out? I thought the most this stuff did was make a person's leg numb."
"Yes for mages. He's not a mage though. His responses to any kind of non-physical attack including poisons will be more. If we left it for a month even I don't know what would happen." Kyle said. He pulled out the vial and made a few adjustments to it with some other potions he had.
Kip glared at them "I'm not that weak" he growled "I'll be just fine without your potion stuff."
Kyle rolled his eyes a little. This guy was such a pain to deal with. Then a thought crossed his mind, "Okay if you don't pass out within the next hour we'll leave here doing nothing. But if you pass out you get to drink my potion and spend a few days at my place so I can observe data on a non-mage."
Kip seemed to think it over for a second then replied "fine." He then sat on a chair and crossed his arms glaring at his not quite invited guests.
A half hour passed and Kip seemed fine. Kyle was a little surprised, he had expanded the time frame in case he was somewhat resistant to his original estimate but he hadn't expected him to be. The only way for a non-mage to get resistance was getting hit with things. Poor guy. Wait why did he care?
Kyle shoved the thought from his mind. 45 minutes, maybe he just needed to move around more to trigger its effect.
"Would you mind if I troubled you for some water?" he asked.
Kip glared but stood up as if to fetch some. Then Kip blinked a few extra times and Kyle immediately rose to his feet recognizing the symptom. Kips eyes fell shut a half second later and his legs gave out from under him.
As he fell, Kyle's out stretched arm was waiting for him. "Honestly you're so difficult." He muttered to the unconscious figure.